New art, glass store opens on Capitol Street

The family-owned Only One Look opened a new location on Capitol Street in Charleston last week.

LAWRENCE PIERCE | Gazette-Mail
Randolph Evans, the owner of Only One Look, which opened on Capitol Street, said the store has a mix of original artwork and replicas.

Only One Look is hoping to make an impression on the Charleston market in the next seven months.

The store had its soft opening for its new location at 110 Capitol St. last week.

“We love art and we know Charleston is an art town,” Randolph Evans, the store’s owner, said. “We wanted to bring this collection of art, glass, and coins into a robust economy.”

Evans has two other stores in Princeton that also carry primarily American-made artwork that focuses on regional history. When walking into Evan’s Capitol Street store, patrons will see a variety of familiar West Virginia Blenko Glass art works and paintings depicting Civil War scenes.

“My company is about creativity,” Evans said. “It’s a unique gallery — you don’t know what you are going to find in here.”

The store has an ongoing partnership with Blenko. Evans has had several art series commissioned just for his stores, including a blue and gold vase for West Virginia’s 150th birthday.

The family-owned business has eight employees, but Evans said he is hoping to hire two more for the Charleston store.

Evans said the Andy Thomas art paintings of former presidents have been very popular. In one piece, Harry Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson, Woodrow Wilson, John F. Kennedy, Bill Clinton, Teddy Roosevelt and Andrew Jackson are sitting together at a table playing a card game.

Evans said people traveled from Charleston to buy the coins printed for West Virginia’s 150th birthday that featured 35 stars and the state motto.

He hopes to have his entire inventory moved in soon.

“It’s a challenge to put a store together 100 miles away,” Evans said.

On Thursday, Evans is launching his coal coin in the West Virginia four-coin heritage series. Evans’ father was a coal miner who experienced layoffs like others, he said. The coin pays tribute to the nation’s coal miners’ persistence in providing for their families, regardless of the dangers associated with the job, Evans said.

Only One Look has a seven-month lease on the building. It will be open Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays to start. Hours will expand as needed.

Evans said the store has a mix of original artwork and replicas. Some pieces cost as little as $3.50 for coal script and as much as $1,200 for a one-of-a-kind vase. “We are just looking to see how the market is,” Evans said. “I’ve heard positives and negatives about Charleston, but I believe this is the perfect market for what we are trying to do.”